Device-to-device (D2D) communication is a low-power capacity enhancement technique, which can improve spectrum efficiency and also offload traffic from a macro-eNB network. D2D communication can provide enhanced system capacity with low power for ubiquitous broadband wireless applications. Although D2D communication can take place without the assistance of a macro-eNB, D2D devices and existing macro cell systems can concurrently reuse an available spectrum.
However, within a macro/femto/D2D heterogeneous network, a multi-tier interference problem can arise. Aggregated interference from multiple D2D communication pairs can interfere with the macro-User Equipment's (UE) signal. When femtocells adaptively allocate channels and transmission power for femto-UEs, different D2D devices can experience various femto-to-device interference strength. Furthermore, the femto-to-device interference strength can also be time varying.
The aforementioned presents challenges in resource allocation for macro/femto/D2D heterogeneous networks because the macro-eNB is unaware of the interference situation of each D2D device. Therefore a system to jointly allocate the channels and adjust power for multiple D2D devices in a macro/femto/D2D heterogeneous network can achieve reduced device-to-macro interference, reduced control signaling, and increased D2D throughput.
The above-described background relating to network-assisted channel selection and power control for multi-pair device-to-device communications is merely intended to provide a contextual overview of some current issues, and is not intended to be exhaustive. Other contextual information may become further apparent upon review of the following detailed description.